Low-Cost Real-Time Vision Platform for Spatial Temperature Control Research Education Developments

Temperature control is present in many industrial processes, making this skill mandatory for the control engineers. For this reason, different training temperature platforms have been created for this purpose. However, many of these platforms are expensive, require elaborate facility accommodations, and have higher heating and cooling times, making not suitable for teaching and training. This paper presents a low-cost educational platform for temperature control training. The platform employs a Peltier module as a heating element, which has lower heating and cooling time than other thermal system implementations. A low-cost real-time thermal camera is employed as a temperature feedback sensor instead of a standard thermal sensor. The control algorithm is developed in Matlab-Simulink and employs an Arduino board as hardware in the loop to manage the Peltier module. A temperature control experiment is performed to show that the platform is suitable for teaching and training experiences not only in the classroom but for engineers in the industry.